Week #11 Healthy Habits Challenge – Practice Mindfulness

Welcome to Week #11 of the 12-Week Healthy Habits Challenge!

You likely have heard of or even used the word ‘mindful’ or ‘being mindful’. You may have also heard of ‘mindfulness practice’ and that such practice is good for reducing stress.

So, what does mindfulness really mean and why we should practice mindfulness?

A simplistic definition of mindfulness is being fully aware of present moment experience, as opposed to the mind unintentionally wandering all over the place with random thoughts, which happens to many of us, perhaps most of the time.¹

Do you find that your mind often wanders away, lost in thoughts and mental chatter, and that it is hard to be fully present with the tasks at hand?

You are definitely not alone. Studies have shown that the human mind has a tendency to wander away from being fully present with the tasks at hand for about 25-50% of the time when engaging in daily activities.^2,3

When the mind wanders away from present moment experience, it is often occupied with negative and stressful thoughts or emotions, such as ruminating thoughts about past experiences, worrying or fantasizing about the future, mental chatter/commentary, etc.

Studies have found that higher frequency of mind wandering is correlated with increased unhappiness, mood change and stress.^4–6

Therefore, mindfulness practice is important for our well-being, as it is an antidote to mind wandering.

Please continue reading the next section for more details on what mindfulness practice is and its associated health benefits.

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Mindfulness Practice and Its Associated Health Benefits

Mindfulness practice is a training exercise for the mind so that the attention and awareness can be grounded towards present moment experience, rather than mindlessly wandering away into random thought/mental processes.

Present moment experience can take many forms, including whatever arrives at the 5 senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch or body sensations), and mental processes (incl. thoughts, mental chatter, mental images, emotional reactions, perception).¹

During mindfulness practice, one adopts an attentive and yet open, receptive and non-judgmental attitude towards the experience that presents itself at the moment.¹

Regular mindfulness practice can help to calm down the agitation of the mind, help us better manage stressful life events, and enhance the quality and vividness or our daily life experience.¹

Mindfulness practice is so beneficial to our overall health and well-being (as shown below). It has gained tremendous interest in medical/health science research in the past 2-3 decades. Mindfulness practice has also been recommended and used in clinical treatments, workplace, schools and other institutions.¹

Below is a summary of the health benefits of mindfulness practice as shown by scientific research.^1,8–18

Mental health benefits

• Reduce perceived stress.
• Enhance mental and emotional well-being.
• Treat depression, anxiety, pain (both pain symptoms and emotional aspects), and substance use addiction (extensive studies have been done for the treatment of these diseases/disorders).
• Emerging treatment targets: ADHD, posttraumatic stress, eating disorders.

Physical health benefits

• Mitigate harmful effects of chronic stress by lowering blood pressure, resting heart rate and stress hormone (cortisol). (See Week #9 Healthy Habits Challenge for more details on the importance and tips to manage stress.)
• Help with chronic pain management, by reducing pain and depression symptoms, and improving quality of life among people with chronic pain conditions.
• Improve cardiovascular health by lowering blood pressure, mitigating stress-activation of nervous system, and reducing risk of obesity.
• Control blood glucose levels.
• Support brain health by positively altering brain structure and function that result in improved attention, verbal learning, short-term/working memory, and emotional regulation.
• Support immune health, by enhancing immune defense, reducing inflammation, slowing down age-associated deterioration of immune function (called immune aging).

See the next section for some tips to practice mindfulness in our daily life.

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Tips to Practice Mindfulness in Your Daily Life

Mindfulness can be practiced in structured practice sessions (e.g., mindfulness meditation sessions) or can be incorporated into your regular daily activities.

Here are some tips:

1. Engage in structured mindfulness practice sessions such as mindfulness meditation sessions – seated or walking meditation. 5 to 10 minutes of short meditation each day is a good start. If you are new to mindfulness meditation, it is a good idea to join guided meditation sessions with a meditation teacher through live classes or even using online meditation App or streaming audio/video. (** See below a brief mindfulness breathing meditation that you can try.)
2. Sprinkle in brief mindfulness breaks during the day. During each break, take a couple or few minutes to sit comfortably with your eyes closed, and tune in to the body and do a quick body scan to observe sensations that are present in the body. Simply observe with curiosity, interest and without judgement how your body feels at the present moment. You can do this for as short or as long a duration as you want. (** See below a brief mindfulness breathing meditation that you can incorporate into your mindfulness breaks.)
3. Engage in mindful movement exercises such as yoga, Tai Chi, and Qigong. These mindful movement practices help to ground the attention and awareness to the movement of the body and the associated body sensations. While being attentive to the movement and how your body feels, it is also important to be open, receptive and non-judgmental towards the experience that arises at each moment.
4. Practice mindfulness as you engage in regular physical exercise (e.g., running, walking, biking, etc.) by being attentive to your movement and how your body feel as you move. Also, be fully aware of all the other sensory inputs as well such as scenery, sound and scent around you. Try to put aside things that may distract you from the present moment experience such as playing music on your headphones as you exercise.
5. Practice mindfulness in your daily activities, such as mindful eating – by being attentive to the visual presentation of the foods, the taste of every bite of the foods, the movement involved in bringing foods to the mouth and chewing, and the body sensations (e.g., appetite, hunger, fullness), and also putting aside distraction such as watching TV or using digital devices while eating. Other daily activities that you can practice mindfulness include mindful walking, mindful driving, mindful cooking, mindful cleaning, etc., by being fully attentive to the tasks that you are doing, fully aware of whatever arises at the 5 senses, and minimizing external distraction if possible.

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** Mindfulness Breathing Meditation

Give the following brief mindfulness breathing meditation a try to start cultivating present moment awareness.

1. Find a comfortable sitting posture without straining the body.
2. Gently close your eyes.
3. Gently settle your attention and awareness to your breath.
4. Observe with curiosity and interest sensations at the nostrils as you breath in and out.
5. You can also expand your observation to other body sensations involved as you breath in and out, such as expansion and contraction of the chest, rib cage or abdomen.
6. There is no need to focus hard. Simply observe continuously the sensations that are present, with an open, receptive and non-judgmental mind.
7. Try to avoid controlling your breath and just be an observer.
8. If your mind wanders, do not worry or judge yourself. Gently settle your awareness back to your breath.

You can do this meditation for as short or as long a duration as you want.

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Join me for this week’s challenge and practice mindfulness for your well-being!

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Related Articles

Week #9 Healthy Habits Challenge – Manage Stress, for Your Mental & Physical Well-being

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References

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